Ed White

Tadcaster Albion recorded their highest ever attendance for a pre-season friendly but were downed 3-0 by a strong Leeds United XI on Wednesday evening.

Goals from Mirco Antenucci, Billy Sharp and Souleymane Doukara were enough to send Leeds to a comfortable victory at the i2i Stadium.

Despite Leeds also taking part in a friendly against York City on the same evening, the Championship outfit brought several first team players to take on their semi-professional counterparts.

And with the Leeds fan base split between the two grounds, Taddy were still able to welcome more than 1,000 spectators through the turnstiles for only the second time in their history.

Ings Lane was packed to the rafters with an official attendance of 1011.

And the support base witnessed a classy Leeds performance against a Tadcaster team still settling into life under new boss Billy Miller.

Leeds’ class told early on when Antenucci received the ball in space and slotted it home with his left foot.

Albion struggled to hold onto the ball in the early stages but were kept in the game by an impressive performance by goalkeeper Gary Stevens.

Leeds would have doubled their advantage on 20 minutes had it not been for the crossbar, with Sloth crashing a volley onto the woodwork.

The crossbar denied Leeds again on 37 minutes when Sharp had rounded Stevens, and the woodwork was struck for a third time four minutes later when Lewis Walters’ shot from 20 yards cannoned back off the post.

The second goal eventually arrived within ten minutes of the second period. Liam Cooper powered a header over Taddy centre-back Danny Stimpson and Billy Sharp raced through before rounding Stevens and finishing with aplomb.

Sharp and Antenucci continued to fashion chances for the visitors but Stevens remained firm in the Taddy goal, providing a number of top class saves.

The goalkeeper made way for Peter Lawrie with 20 minutes left on the clock and the replacement stopped was immediately called into action to deny Doukara’s powerful drive.